What a disturbing species we can be.

No this is not a photo of a drowning child being saved by passers by.

This disturbing photo is of a boy (wrongly captioned as Russian Orthodox, how can a child possibly choose a religion?) being plunged into freezing waters in celebration of the Epiphany holiday in St. Petersburg. It is difficult looking at this poor child's face. His parents might understand the tradition but to this child it would be a traumatic and frightening assault.

I find it difficult to comprehend how this child's parents can view this as a positive action. It is one of the many deplorable ways that religion enslaves minds, even surpassing out natural instincts of protecting our children from harm.

Indoctrinating children makes it proof positive that religion is a man made tradition that is mostly maintained by coercion and fear. Fear of hell and fear of being shunned by family and the community if they dare to think for themselves.

Epiphany is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus by dumping stupid people in cold water.